Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Here is Magda’s dad, special guest star of today’s blog post. I would
like to suggest something very Polish and very tasty – sweet specialty prepared
mainly for Carnival season which starts with Christmas and ends on Mardi Gras,
Ash Wednesday. This year it falls quite early – February 13 (I am not
superstitious but does that mean bad luck or what ?)

Our today’s hero is CHRUST (pron. “khroost”). In Polish it literally
means “brushwood”, a bunch of twigs, small and tiny wooden brunches usually
collected in the woods to serve as an easy starter of a bonfire. Similarity is
obvious: these sweet twisted ribbon-shaped deep fried cookies resemble their
natural wooden cousins. As it is in our rich Polish language, there is a
plethora of names for these dessert items – “Chrust, chruściki, faworki,
jaworki, kreple”. All as easy tongue-twisting as almost everything in my
mother’s tongue. But it is much easier to cook. Particular name depends on the
region of Poland they are prepared in. My choice comes from my mom who taught
me to make CHRUST. My family for generations has been proud citizens of royal
city of Krakow, the capital of Małopolska (Lesser Poland) region where CHRUST
label dominate overwhelmingly.

How these cookies should be called in English ? Wikipedia and numerous culinary
websites and recipes name CHRUST as “angel wings”. Sorry, but it sounds
pretentious, a bit kitchy. We (me and Magda) wondered whether a new useful and
corresponding name can be invented. Our conclusion (watch out ! Copyright) is
Crunchy-Branchy. The cookies, when properly prepared, are quite al dente in a sense of crunchiness and
crispiness. And since they are like small pieces of wood, twigs, broken
branches, crunchy-branchy should be
approved and accepted by all cookies lovers.

And, last but not least for this lengthy introduction to the recipe, I
wish to say that dishes, specialties and culinary products strictly tied to a
certain time of the year, special season, religious holidays etc. fill the drawer
of my dearest recipes and flavors. Can you imagine Thanksgiving Day without a
turkey (sorry American friends but you always demonstrate bizarre ability to
overcook this bird unless it becomes tasteless…) ? Advent-lent period without
gingerbread houses ? Mardi Gras without a fish or shellfish ? Christmas dinner
without beloved traditional family dishes ? No way. So CHRUST dominates Poland during
Carnival time.

Making CHRUST (CRUNCHY-BRANCHY) is not too complicated. The secret is
making proper dough and keeping the rules of ingredients that form it.

We will need (for a big plate to be filled with mound of the cookies):

Making a dough: make a crater in the mound of dough, add all ingredients
and start to mix it. Delicately but with no mercy. The dough may seem too dry
but it’s only initial impression. If you make the dough patiently and
thoroughly (hard labor, nothing comes for free !) it will reach the end as
homogenous, smooth, slightly flexible. It it’s really too dry, add 1 – 2
spoonful of water but frankly speaking the dough need not to drink it. When you
judge the dough to be well-worked out, beat it with a roll for several minutes
– until it starts to reveal small air bubbles. I usually throw the dough
against the wooden board (all sides) but this roars as a thunder and finally I
hear neighbors knocking from the above or from the down under. Then I finish
torturing the dough with a roll.

OK. Now the dough (cylinder-shaped) must take a rest in the
refrigerator. Store it there for about an hour but covered with a linen cloth
or kitchen towel.

Get the dough out of the cool place. Cut into three even pieces. Take
one, the other two put back In the
fridge. Roll. Roll and roll. Don’t rock, just roll until the dough nears paper-thin.
Cut it with a knife into 2,5 cm (1 inch) wide and 12 cm (5 inch) stripes. Make
4 cm (1,5 inch) cut in the middle of each strip. Take one end of each strip and
draw it out through the slit in of the stripe. This way you shape it like a
ribbon. You will truly see this once it is deep fried !

Now it’s time to warm up the fat/oil. I always use my old wok (bought in
1988 for one dollar(!) at a garage sale
in Boulder, Colorado) but any pan or pot for deep frying will do. The fat
temperature is OK when small piece of the dough thrown upon immediately comes
out to the surface “boiling”. Now you can softly put the dough ribbons into the
hot oil. Not too many at a time, otherwise they will fry unevenly. For the same
reason, turn them quickly when frying. Final color should be deep golden
towards light brown. Gently (it’s CHRUST, pretty fragile “brushwood”) take the
cookies out of the pan. Bring down the heat under the pan otherwise the fat
will start burning. Dry the cookies on the paper towel, then move onto the
large plate. When the first layer covers the plate, sprinkle it snow-white with
the confectioner’s sugar. It sounds a
bit complicated, but believe me, it is not. Especially when you have a helper
in the kitchen (no kids ! Boiling oil is a mortal danger and scars from oil
burns can be lifelong) who moves the cookies from here to there.

What else ? You repeat the sequence of the activities unless all dough
has been rolled out, cut into stripes, ribbon-shaped and fried. What’s crucial
for successful frying operation is maintaining proper oil/fat temperature. And
adding some fat (cookies absorb it when fried) every now and then. Don’t be
frightened: you will get necessary experience after just one session.

The satisfaction of admiring the mountain of fantastic CHRUST cookies on
the plate dusted with sugar snow rewards all efforts. And they are so
delicious, so unique in texture, taste and flavor ! Writing this I already have
my mouth watered all over even if swallowed final pieces of my CRUNCHY-BRANCHY
only last Sunday. And don’t leave them for the following day. This is kind of
food to be consumed the very same evening.

Cuisines of several nations include making “angel wings” cookies like
Polish CHRUST. But believe me, none taste like ours.

The real sweet bonanza in Poland comes on “Tłusty Czwartek”, last “Fat”
Thursday before Ash Wednesday. Everybody eats “pączki” (Polish style doughnuts)
on this day. But that’s another story, for another post.

2 comments:

I haven't eaten those in a very long time. We used to call them in France chrusciki, but it sounded like chrushtiki. They were good. My mom and my 2 sisters are very good cooks. Once in a while they used to make some polish food.

Hello Nadege, nice to see your here, I am sorry for answering only tonight but you know that I had some complications (my husband's leg). I saw "chusciki" in Laduree, a few years ago - I even bought one, but the taste was a bit different in comparison to what I know from Poland. I've never made them - my father does !